Indeed you may be correct about their prejudices; being from Louisiana, I know that they are mostly unfounded, but they do exist. Certainly, they had never had the opportunity to sample your cooking and style of cuisine which always manages to side-step such issues as “greasy, heavy, fried food” and make it a departure point for your own interpretation.

Later this week or early next week Raj – I need a day when I can set it up and take photos step by step… or maybe even video it… we shall see.

Martin, I’m not sure that it was anything particularly anti the state of Georgia, but more of a prejudice about what the cuisine might be. Even amongst the guests who came, a couple mentioned to me that they were pleasantly surprised because it had been the only night they could come and they were dreading the sort of greasy, heavy, fried food that they’d been expecting. And, let’s face it, the south, in particular the sort of belt of Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, South Carolina tends to have that image, and while there are certainly plenty of dishes in their repertoires to justify the suspicion, there are also plenty more that don’t fit that mold and are healthy, light, and elegant. Plus, of course, the thing that people who haven’t been here tend to not realize is that I only use the themes as a stepping off point to influence my dishes, I rarely reproduce a traditional dish “as is”.

Tom – it does. It’s an ocean-going perch, though there is also a freshwater relative that in the U.S. is known as the squawfish or the Colorado pikeminnow.